When the cheering was done, and every eye was fixed upon the
blushing Scudamore--who felt himself, under that fixture, like an insect
under a lens which the sun is turning into a burning-glass--the Chairman
perceived his sad plight, and to give him more time and more spirit,
rose again.
"Gentlemen," he said, "or I would rather call you brother Englishmen at
this moment, I have forgotten one thing. Before our young hero replies
to his health, let us give him that spirited song 'Billy Blue,' which is
well known to every man here, I'll be bound. Tell the drummer down
there to be ready for chorus." Billy Blue, though almost forgotten now
(because the enemy would not fight him), the blockader of Brest, the
hardy, skilful, and ever watchful Admiral Cornwallis, would be known to
us nearly as well as Nelson, if fame were not a lottery.
As the Lord-Lieutenant waved his hand, the company rose with one accord,
and followed the lead of his strong clear voice in the popular song,
called
"BILLY BLUE"
1
"'Tis a terrible time for Englishmen;
All tyrants do abhor them;
Every one of them hath to fight with ten,
And the Lord alone is for them.
But the Lord hath given the strong right hand,
And the courage to face the thunder;
If a Frenchman treads this English land,
He shall find his grave thereunder.
CHORUS
Britannia is the Ocean-Queen, and she standeth staunch and
true,
With Nelson for her faulchion keen, and her buckler Billy Blue.
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